books.google.com - This classic work by Reshad Feild, one of today's best-known Sufi teachers in the West, tells the compelling story of his journey into an ancient and powerful spiritual path. Starting as a London antique dealer, Feild comes into contact with the enigmatic Hamid, a Sufi teacher who leads him into a world...https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Last_Barrier.html?id=TpkQAQAAIAAJ&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareThe Last Barrier

The Last Barrier: A Journey Into the Essence of Sufi Teachings

This classic work by Reshad Feild, one of today's best-known Sufi teachers in the West, tells the compelling story of his journey into an ancient and powerful spiritual path. Starting as a London antique dealer, Feild comes into contact with the enigmatic Hamid, a Sufi teacher who leads him into a world of mystery, knowledge, and limitless love. On his journey, which takes him to the mystical sites of Turkey, Feild is forced to confront his own inner weaknesses and falsehoods. Hamid and the events of his search take him again and again into confrontation with the limits of his own being, enabling him to shed the false conditioning that lies between himself and his true nature. This hard-to-put-down adventure is a travelogue in more ways than one. It tells of Feild's exhilarating explorations into mystical Turkey, a land of whirling dervishes and the tombs of great saints, but also a world that opens into the divine love that lies at the heart of all. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition features a new foreword by Coleman Barks, the foremost modern interpreter of the Sufi poet Rumi, and a new preface by the author.

I first read The Last Barrier 15 years ago and it is among my top 5 books that have inspired and challenged me to grow. I shared the tensions and challenges he experienced not only with his pilgrimages but with his teacher. As his paradigms shifted, so did my own. I have gone back and revisited this book many times ... So well read is this text, the the bindings frayed and I have sought a new copy. While on a recent trip to Istanbul, I had the pleasure of experiencing the whirling dervish and meeting and receiving a healing from a Sufi master. The book has added to my quality of life. Highly recommended read.

About the author (2002)

Coleman Barks was born on April 23, 1937, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He graduated from the University of North Carolina and the University of California at Berkeley. Since 1972 he has taught English at the University of Georgia at Athens. Barks received the New England/Breadloaf Quarterly Narrative Poem Prize and the Southern Poetry Review's Guy Owen Award. His collections of poetry include The Juice and Gourd Seed. Barks is perhaps better known as a translator of the poet Rumi, a thirteenth century Mystic. Rumi is cpnsidered the greatest mystic of the Sufi religion and wrote extensively in Farsi, the language of Iran.